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Pizza d’Asporto

Since opening it’s doors in December 2016, Eat West has heard nothing but rave reviews about Pizza d’Asporto – Yarraville. A catch up with friends was the perfect opportunity to see if it lived up to expectations – is it really the best pizza in Yarraville?

The Venue

Situated on Ballarat Street next to the iconic Sun Theatre, Pizza d’Asporto overlooks Yarraville’s pop up park and makes the most of its location with plenty of alfresco dining on the raised front patio and pavement outside. It would be hard to find a more perfect place to relax, have a beautiful meal and soak up the atmosphere in one of the West’s most treasured spots.

The restaurant does not take bookings and recommended we arrive at 6pm to make sure our party of 9 could be seated together. It was good advice – by 6.30pm is was extremely busy and wait staff were struggling to accommodate the flood of arriving customers, some of whom were left milling around, eyeing off our table – so it felt a little manic, but you can forgive a little noise and bluster when the food is good.

The best pizza in Yarraville?

The menu is excellent with a good range of starters, salads, pasta and a large choice of wonderful sounding pizzas. It is very well priced for family dining, with entrees starting at $8 and pasta and pizzas starting at $14. With the large menu and keen pricing, it would be hard to not find something to love here – every dish sounded delicious. We ordered plates to share so we would get a good overall experience of the menu.

As soon as the food arrived, it was clear to see why Pizza d’Asporto is so popular – everything was absolutely divine!

PENNE BOLOGNESE (pictured is the small, $9 / large $15)

There are two options for children, a penne Bolognese and penne Napoli, both $9. The Bolognese was delicious and polished off in double-quick time, even by a fussy eater, but the portion size was a little on the small side, so we recommend ordering regular size and sharing, or getting some focaccia too. The menu is really well suited to children, and ours would happily eat almost anything on it, so it wasn’t an issue.

If I was being super-picky, I might suggest this be renamed the meat plate, as we expected the meat to be presented on a beautiful wooden board, but the selection was excellent and it was nice to see some beautiful parmesan on a platter, as it’s often overlooked.

We ordered two pizzas, the Salumi (pictured) and the Salsiccia Porcini, with San Marzano tomato, mozzarella, pork sausage, porcini mushroom and parmesan. The pizza bases were thin, doughy perfection with light, crisp edges, and the ingredients were all excellent quality and perfectly cooked. So was it the best pizza in Yarraville…? Eat West think you’d struggle to find a better pizza in Yarraville, and possibly the Western suburbs, and we love our pizza!

The pork and fennel ragu was also beautiful – the pork literally fell apart on the fork, it was so tender. We chose the radicchio salad to complement the meal and again, couldn’t fault it. Each dish was perfectly presented, super tasty and great value for money.

Our only real complaint was that our food arrived before our drinks, and we had task three different wait staff before being delivered cans of drink with no glasses, ice or even straws, and the waitress turned and rushed off so quickly we couldn’t ask her for any. It’s such a shame that the service was so haphazard, as the kitchen was doing an incredible job on an extremely busy Saturday night sending out amazing food in super-quick time.

The Verdict

If you want beautiful Italian food, Pizza d’Asporto is definitely worth a visit – it certainly lives up to its quickly established reputation as the best pizza in Yarraville. In terms of quality and value for money, they have it 100% right, and the location is perfect.

On busy weekends, it would be worth the management considering taking bookings or collating a wait list. This might reduce the need to move furniture during a busy dinner service and discourage customers from circling like vultures in hope of a seat, which is annoying for those trying to enjoy their meal. A few extra high chairs would be an improvement too. We really enjoyed the food and wonderful live music, but the overall dining experience was a little hectic.

Having said all of that, we acknowledge that when we visited it was VERY busy, and it’s likely that some of the issues we met are not par for the course. The restaurant takes so much care with its food and overall, we think Pizza d’Asporto is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy some beautiful live music and food.

Update

Eat West recently caught up with the owners of Pizza d’Asporto and the Saturday we visited was the busiest they have had. The restaurant has brought something new to Yarraville, a relaxed vibe and great food with a family friendly price point, so it’s no surprise that the good news has travelled fast. The restaurant’s popularity is such that, after only two months, they have extended their lease to include the upstairs of the building and the fit-out is already underway. The Yarraville restaurant has proved more popular for dining-in than their Williamstown venue, and the extra space will accommodate this. They have more high chairs too 🙂

Have you been to Pizza d’Asporto? We would love your comments and feedback if you have! Photos and reviews can also be uploaded to our Facebook and Instagram pages